Sparrow aimed a dart. Melodie wielded her sword. Dark Dame held out her wand. Kid Mime put a pair of iron knuckles on. "Alright," Melodie snapped, "show yourself!"

The figure slowly walked out of the shadows they had hidden inside, and the relief Sparrow felt at recognizing them was enough to slump his shoulders. "You could have just told us you were here, Mercury."

Their teammate entered the hall in silence as Dark Dame lowered her wand. "Were you able to distract Le Paon?" She chuckled. "You were running so fast that I could barely see you! Hope it was enough to keep her away from this part of the museum."

Melodie twirled the sword in her hand. "No one is here. We need to find her exact location and corner her, so she won't be able to call on any innocent civilians."

Kid Mime erased the knuckles from existence and stretched with a yawn. Hopefully before any of us, and by that, I mean me, start getting drowsy. This has been a long few days. He gave her a nudge. So, leader, where shall we start?

Melodie was about to tell them when Sparrow held his hand up for silence. He rarely interrupted her so boldly, but with all eyes on him he gave a good enough reason as soon as he had pointed a finger at Mercury.

I should have seen it sooner.

His friends were silent as he slowly stepped up beside Mercury, who had yet to say a word about his distraction. Sparrow slipped behind him and quickly plucked off the long peacock feather he had found. Dark Dame gasped. "No!"

Even without the feather on him, Mercury was zoned out. Kid Mime waved a hand over his eyes but got no response. Mercury? You still in there?

Melodie sucked in a breath. "We need to get out of here. Le Paon is using him! She knows where we are-"

Clap. Clap. Clap.

Mercury clapped in a slow and steady pace, eyes staring off into nothing. Sparrow and the others backed away and grouped together by the Mona Lisa as his glassy eyes followed them. "Guys," a squeak slipped out of Dark Dame, "what is happening?"

Clap-clap. Clap-clap. Clap-clap.

Civilians were blocking both entrances to the hall, clapping along with Mercury, expressionless. Sparrow gave them all a scan and grimaced. "Their heartbeats are the same. Temperatures, too. It appears that their pulses are the same-"

CLAP.

Utter silence. Kid Mime cautiously raised his hands. Anybody else petrified?

Melodie took a deep breath and stepped in front of the others. "Le Paon?" She spoke to Mercury despite every pair of eyes on her. "It's clear you know we're here, so why not just come out and face us? Are you afraid of confrontation?"

Mercury made no movements of his own as his mouth opened. "I am no coward," his voice had merged with the sultriness of Le Paon, "and I am no fool. I will deal with you from where I am. I have no need of your Quantic…however," now all eyes were on Dark Dame, "your miraculous is going to be quite useful."

Kid Mime pulled her behind him and Sparrow as Melodie crossed her arms. "You think you can just take the miraculous? You should know that Dark Dame is the holder of the djinn mark, and her powers are stronger than this entire crowd of your slaves."

Dark Dame wiped a tear from her eye. "Do you mean that?"

Sparrow slowly turned to her. "You honestly thought you were weaker than dozens of people without magic powers?"

"It's just nice to hear."

"We really need to work on your self-esteem."

"You will hand over the miraculous," Le Paon spoke through every citizen and Mercury, "before anybody needs to come to harm." They raised their arms and closed in on the squad. "Escape is impossible."

Sparrow pulled back his invisible bow. "Good thing none of us are trying to escape." He leaped over Melodie and aimed the dart at the middle of the crowd. "FREEZE!" He unleashed the dart and landed behind the people as they frozen in place. "I got most of them," he began to warn the others, "but there will be more outside this section."

Dark Dame gave a cheer behind Kid Mime. "Way to go, Sparrow-"

Bam!

No one could react in time to stop Mercury from zipping in beside Kid Mime and both bashing him into the wall and throwing him into Melodie, toppling them to the floor. He then grabbed Dark Dame and zipped to the far exit of the Denon Wing, pinning her arms to her side while he stared at them. "I warned you."

Dark Dame kicked around to no avail. "Save the people," she called out, "and Damma will lead you-"

Whish!

Sparrow blinked, and they were gone. He joined Melodie as she helped Kid Mime to his feet. "If she plans on de-transforming in the prescence of Le Paon, then I apologize ahead of time, Mime, but I will be giving her a four-hour lecture on secret identities as soon as we save her." He turned back to the frozen crowd. "Now, who wants to begin this rescue?"

"Leave the people to me," Melodie commanded, "and you two follow Mercury before Dame gets herself in even greater danger."

Sparrow and Kid Mime gave a nod before running out of the Denon Wing and down the stairs. It was a quick race to the bottom level of the Louvre, but from there on out the halls were crowded with even more citizens. Sparrow pulled Kid Mime behind one of the pillars as a young couple passed by. Putting a finger to his lips he peeked around.

Alright, two going left…no, four going left, and at least five near the western corner-no, no, now there are seven. Six by the east exit…wait, there are a couple children, too.

He shared an apprehensive look with Kid Mime.

Perhaps I should have played more of those horror games with Victor…